A new star for Animal Planet: Vegan Treats of Bethlehem

Film crew will follow owner for 12 episodes, highlighting her stance on animal rights.

March 31, 2011|By Kathy Lauer-Williams, OF THE MORNING CALL

Gwyneth Paltrow and Alicia Silverstone are already fans of Vegan Treats. Animal Planet executives think viewers will also get hooked on the Bethlehem bakery, its 36-year-old owner and her passion for animal rights.

Animal Planet has started shooting a new 12-episode reality show about owner Danielle Konya. Tentatively titled "Sweet Avenger," it will run this summer.

The show will follow Konya as she keeps up with the thriving bakery, which sells from its Linden Street location and ships desserts to more than 100 restaurants from New York to Virginia. It will also show how she juggles being a single mother to an adopted teenage daughter.

Consider it a hip version of TLC's popular "Cake Boss" — with a message.

As a vegan baker, Konya doesn't use butter or eggs. She believes that factory farms that produce those ingredients are harmful to animals.

"For me it's 100 percent about animals," the 1993 Northampton High School graduate said Wednesday in an interview at Vegan Treats. "I believe all living beings are sentient and feel pain. Compassion starts in the kitchen."

Lehigh Valley residents have appeared prominently in recent years on a number of reality TV shows, including "American Idol," "Project Runway" and "Teen Mom 2." But "Sweet Avenger" may well be the most prominent series based in the Valley. Animal Planet, one of the top 30 cable channels, reaches 97 million homes.

The show also will feature Konya's co-workers, who include her mother and head baker Vicki Mowery and best friend and bakery manager Sarah Bilotti.

Konya was contacted last summer by an Animal Planet producer who came to Bethlehem to do a test shoot.

"They loved it here," Konya said. "They thought it was a great vibe."

Sara Helman, director of development for Animal Planet, said the channel wanted to do a show that highlighted a vegan baker who believed in helping protect animals.

"We did a wide search and quickly found Vegan Treats since it is a popular and widely acclaimed vegan bakery," she said. "When we saw the first video clips of Danielle Konya, we were immediately won over by her bold look, fierce passion and strong sense of family.

"And her treats wowed us. She sent over some of her peanut butter bombs, which are extremely delicious."

Animal Planet hasn't announced when the show will start airing this summer.

A crew has filmed two episodes and this weekend will film another as Konya interviews potential pastry chefs. She says it's been an adjustment getting used to having cameras following her everywhere.

"They dive really deeply into my personal life," she says.

The show follows her life as a single mother raising her daughter Britny, 18, who is a vegetarian and has helped at the bakery much of her life.

The series will show her baking for galas and events for musicians in New York City.

Konya became a vegan at age 17 after seeing a lobster being boiled. She started Vegan Treats in 1998 as a wholesale bakery and opened her retail store in 2005. She wants to prove that desserts made without eggs, milk or butter can be just as good, or better than, traditionally made desserts.

With no formal culinary background, she perfected her vegan recipes in her mother's kitchen.

She attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and the baked creations that line the cases of the store reflect her artistic aesthetic. Miniature cakes are iced in yellow and pink and adorned with roses made of icing. A raspberry cake is decorated with fresh raspberries.

Customers also can choose from items like oversized cookies and decadent-looking peanut butter cup brownies.

Allentown resident Jeff Lynn said that guests loved the cake that Konya made for his wedding.

"They couldn't believe it when I told them it was vegan," he said. "The quality is just as good if not better than what you get elsewhere."

Ryan Dietrick of Orefield has been buying at Vegan Treats for two years. He calls her desserts, particularly the peanut butter bombs, "unbelievable."

"Hands down, it's the best bakery in the Lehigh Valley," he said.

He predicted "Sweet Avenger" will be a hit for Animal Planet.

"You see how successful baking shows like 'Cake Boss' and 'Aces of Cakes' are," he said. "She has the baking and a real cause behind her."

Konya's arms are covered by tattoos of endangered animals, attesting to her belief in animal rights.

"We are slaughtering billions of animals for food," she said. "One-third of the earth's surface is being used for livestock. It is affecting the whole planet and no one seems to care. I want to show people that by eating a vegan confection, you're directly saving the lives of cows, chickens and thereby the environment and habitats of thousands of other exotic species."

The show will be Animal Planet's second foray into the animal rights movement. It has had success with its reality show "Whale Wars," about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which tries to block Japanese whalers off the coast of Antarctica. "Whale Wars" will begin its fourth season in June.